How Purdey’s perfect hair almost ended on the cutting room floor
AS THE high-kicking Purdey in The New Avengers TV series she saw off more than her fair share of villains. But Joanna Lumley has revealed her toughest fight in the 1970s show was over her iconic ‘Purdey’ haircut. The actress has revealed that producers tried to stop her cutting off the long brown hair she had sported at her audition. She said: ‘I said her [the character’s] hair will be cut short and they said, “No you cannot do that because no heroine has ever had short hair” which was true.
‘I said I will cut it and you will like it. They said if you cut it and we don’t like it you can pay for the wig. But they liked it.’
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Lumley, 72, who starred in the show between 1976 and 1977, also said her character’s name was going to be Charlie but she objected because that was the name of a popular perfume at the time.
Lumley instead named her after the make of an old English shotgun.
The actress said she had nothing but praise for her co-stars, especially Patrick Macnee, who played John Steed.
‘Patrick was The Avengers. He thought he acted Steed but he actually was Steed. He refused to use a gun in the show. Having been in the war he couldn’t bear anything like that.’
Lumley said she would always be grateful for The New Avengers transforming her career.
She said: ‘As an actress there is nothing like being known for something. Purdey and The New Avengers stuck.
‘I wouldn’t have cared now if I had done it for nothing for what it gave me. It gave me an identity.’